ZAGREB, August 5, 2019 - A wreath-laying and candle-lighting ceremony was held at a monument dedicated to Croatia's victory in the 1995 Operation Storm in Knin on Monday morning, the first in a number of events that will mark Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Croatian Veterans Day and the 24th anniversary of the combined military and police operation that ended an armed rebellion of local Serbs, helping restore state sovereignty in occupied central and southern parts of the country and enabling the peaceful reintegration of eastern Croatia in January 1998.

A joint wreath was laid at the monument by President and Armed Forces' Supreme Commander Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and the leader of the national association of the families of Croatian defenders killed or gone missing in the war, Ljiljana Alvir.

The ceremony is to be followed by addressed by Grabar-Kitarović, Plenković and Jandroković, after which the three state officials will head for the Knin Fortress overlooking the town to attend the traditional hoisting of the Croatian flag there and a ceremony at which the names of Croatian soldiers killed or gone missing in the 1995 operation will be read out.

The Croatian Air Force aerobatic team The Wings of Storm is expected to perform a display above the Knin Fortress during the ceremony. The programme at the Knin Fortress also includes a performance by the Croatian Navy harmony singing group "St George".

After the ceremony at the Knin Fortress, participants in the event will attend a religious service for the homeland in a local church.

The combined military and police operation Storm was launched on 4 August 1995 and it liberated areas in northern Dalmatia, Lika, Banovina and Kordun that had been controlled by Croatian Serb rebels for four years.

In only 84 hours, Croatian forces, with about 200,000 people, liberated slightly less than 10,500 kilometres of territory, almost one-fifth of the country, which helped put an end to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and enabled the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube region.

The operation was launched at 5 am on August 4 along the line running from Bosansko Grahovo to the south to Jasenovac to the east, the front line being more than 630 kilometres long.

The operation culminated on August 5, when members of the Croatian Army's 4th and 7th Guard Brigades liberated Knin, until then the stronghold of rebel Serb forces.

In the following days, Croatian forces took control of the state border and launched a mop-up operation in the liberated areas. At 6 pm on August 6, then Defence Minister Gojko Šušak declared the end of Operation Storm.

With Operation Storm, Croatian forces enabled the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina to lift the siege of the northwestern town of Bihać, thus helping prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and crime similar to the Srebrenica genocide.

The Homeland War Memorial and Documentation Centre says that 196 Croatian soldiers were killed, at least 1,100 were wounded and 15 went missing in the operation, while losses among Serb forces were several times bigger.

More news about Operation Storm can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 4, 2019 - The Serb National Council (SNV) on Sunday held a commemoration in Donji Lapac, a town in Lika-Senj County near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, with speakers at the event calling on Croatia to face the past and assume responsibility for war crimes committed during and in the aftermath of the 1995 Operation Storm and prosecute those responsible for them.

SNV leader Boris Milošević said that the commemoration was an act of remembering the military and police operation Storm which 24 years ago "cleansed this area of Serbs" while today's state protocol did not envisage making any mention of them in political speeches.

"I don't own the truth but I do know that plunder, arson and murders did happen and that there were no reports about it at the time. The state did not prevent the plunder but rather covered it up, while local authorities issued documents that justified property being loaded onto vehicles and taken away," Milošević said.

He said that Serb houses set on fire in the aftermath of Operation Storm were described as having been set on fire by "Chetniks who were left behind."

"The Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights reported that all houses were set on fire except for those marked by the sign 'Croatian Army, do not touch'. But at the time there were no reports about that or about the killing of elderly, unarmed civilians. And if there were such reports, one of the headlines read 'Five Chetniks murdered'," said Milošević.

He cited places where war crimes were committed against civilians who had stayed in their homes, noting that the state had never expressed sympathy for those people and describing it as "a defect in moral values."

The SNV therefore calls for "acknowledgement, respect and sympathy for victims and their families, for all families, including those of Serb ethnic background."

Describing empathy as a moral issue, Milošević said that by calling for the recognition of Serb victims and sympathy for them, they were asking society to put an end to war and hate, to prevent the stigma of war guilt to be borne by children and to put an end to prejudice against children of different ethnic background. Only that way can we build a better Croatia, because it is our homeland, he added.

The programme director of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Nikola Puharić, said that "there is only one final and one non-final court verdict for war crimes committed against around 600 people killed (during and in the aftermath of Operation Storm)."

He said that the initiative's petition calling for an apology to the victims of Operation Storm had been signed by around 1,200 citizens.

"By signing the petition together with us, members of the Initiative, citizens are asking also the president and the prime minister to send a message of apology to the victims and their families, because it would be a minimum, symbolic form of reparation considering that the judiciary is not prosecuting those cases," said Puharić.

More news about the Operation Storm anniversary can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 4, 2019 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Sunday issued a message on the occasion of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Veterans Day, saying that Croatians today remember with pride and special respect every life given for the freedom of Croatia, a law-based country that will be chairing the European Union in the first half of 2020.

By celebrating Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Veterans Day, Croatia marks with pride the 24th anniversary of the magnificent military and police operation Storm. On 5 August 1995, Croatia's constitutional and legal order was restored in most of the occupied parts of its territory, which brought freedom and peace to the homeland, PM Plenković said in the message.

With the self-sacrifice and courage of Croatian defenders, the skill of army and police commanders, the unity of the Croatian people and the wisdom of Croatia's first president, Franjo Tuđman, in only four days the largest part of occupied areas was liberated. The constitutional order of the sovereign, independent and internationally recognised Croatia was restored in the town of Knin, a centre of Croatian statehood, and Operation Storm also put an end to the siege of Bihac and helped liberate a large part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the PM said.

Owing to Operation Storm, the country's then leadership also enabled, with the help of the United Nations, a peaceful reintegration of Vukovar and the entire Croatian Danube region, which in 1998 resulted in the restoration of Croatia's territorial integrity. Thousands of displaced persons were able to return to their homes, and a lasting peace enabled the country's reconstruction and revitalisation, said the PM.

The Croatian government responsibly protects the dignity of Croatian defenders and will continue to work with commitment on improving their social status as well as on continuing the modernisation of the army and police forces, which are a guarantee of the security of the Croatian state and its citizens, said Plenković.

Inspired by patriotism and Homeland War values, we are working with determination on reforms to build a mature, democratic, socially sensitive, economically strong and competitive country, which is worthy of the sacrifice built into the foundations of its statehood, Plenković said, offering his best wishes to Croats in the country and abroad, defenders and fellow citizens on the occasion of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Veterans Day.

President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, too, issued a message on the occasion of the August 5 holidays, calling for tireless patriotism.

The victory in Operation Storm made the Croats' dream of freedom and independence a reality, enabling the country to become a full member of the international community, she said.

"Let us always be tireless in patriotism! Let us build our beautiful homeland in unity, solidarity and respect for each other, so it can become more prosperous and more just, the way previous generations dreamed it would be and the way our defenders wanted it to be," the president said in her message.

More news about the Homeland War can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 4, 2019 - Delegations of the Croatian government and the City of Zagreb on Sunday laid wreaths at the city's central Mirogoj cemetery ahead of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Croatian Veterans Day and the 24th anniversary of the 1995 Operation Storm.

Operation Storm was a combined military and police operation that was launched on 4 August 1995 and that ended a Serb armed rebellion, helping restore state sovereignty over occupied central and southern parts of the country and enabling the peaceful reintegration of eastern Croatia in January 1998.

Wreaths were laid at the central cross in the Alley of Croatian Homeland War Defenders, at the grave of Croatia's first president, Franjo Tuđman, and at the common grave of unidentified Homeland War victims.

"Many great men had dreamed of Croatia's freedom and independence, but only the generation led by President Franjo Tuđman made it a reality," Parliament Deputy Speaker Željko Reiner said at the wreath-laying ceremony, expressing gratitude to all who had fought for the country's independence.

Veterans Minister Tomo Medved, who also attended the ceremony, commented on Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić's statement of Saturday, saying that Croats did not need anyone to interpret their history for them.

Vučić on Saturday asked Croatian officials where the 400,000 Croatian Serbs and Yugoslavs registered in the 1981 census, had gone.

"I will only say that we created Croatia's more recent history and are witnesses to that time and we do not need anyone to interpret our history for us. We are proud of every detail and every minute of our history," Medved stressed.

He said that Croatia was attacked and defended itself in extremely difficult conditions.

"Croatia managed to defend and liberate its territory and eventually, through peaceful reintegration, restored its constitutional order in the Danube region as well. We are proud of everything we did," he said.

More news about Operation Storm anniversary can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 4, 2019 - Where have 400,000 Serbs and Yugoslavs from Croatia gone, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić asked Croatian officials on Saturday, ahead of events marking the 24th anniversary of the Croatian military and police operation Storm.

Relations between Belgrade and Zagreb become tense every year in August when the operation whereby Croatia in 1995 won the war against the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and local Serb rebels, is commemorated.

Croats consider the operation a legitimate action that liberated then occupied parts of the country while Serbians see it as an act of ethnic cleansing of their ethnic kin from Croatia.

Vučić asked Croatian authorities to explain how it was possible that of the 582,000 Serbs and 106,000 Yugoslavs in Croatia's 1981 census, only 184,000 declared themselves as Serbs in 2011.

The Serbian president is confident that by 2021, there will be fewer than 150,000 Serbs left in Croatia.

"If you say that 100,000 have emigrated for economic reasons, what about the other 400,000? How will you explain that?" asked Vučić.

He reiterated that for Croatia the day of Operation Storm was "a day of joy" while for Serbia "it is one of the saddest days in the country's modern history."

"We must not be ashamed of our tears, we should respect others' victims but unlike before, we must also respect our, Serb victims, talk about them and not downplay them," Vucic told reporters in Belgrade.

Serbia-Croatia relations have been deteriorating in recent years, mainly because of opposite positions on Operation Storm and the plight of Serbs in Croatia, Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) president Milorad Pupovac said this past Thursday, adding that it was necessary to conceive a policy of remembering all the victims which would enable people to live normally.

Pupovac, a Croatian MP, said Croatia-Serbia relations had been bad since 2011 and that, aside from different interpretations of Operation Storm, "a serious problem for Serbs in Croatia" was the absence of sentences for war crimes, persecutions, the destruction of villages, and the prevention of returns.

This year Operation Storm has also caused disputes in relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, after President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said that it had saved Bosnia and Herzegovina's northwestern Krajina region from genocide and that she would like the neighboring country never to forget who gave it a hand in the most difficult times.

A former commander of the Bosniak Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hamdija Abdić Tigar, dismissed Grabar-Kitarovic's statement, claiming that it was Bosniak troops that had liberated parts of Croatia.

"The hell they saved us... We kept this region safe for them the whole time. What would have happened had we been defeated? Where would Croatia be today? Its border would be running along the Karlovac-Karlobag-Virovitica line," said Abdić.

The 24th anniversary of Operation Storm will be marked on August 5 and as in previous years, the central commemoration will be held in Knin, the former stronghold of Croatian Serb rebels, and it will be attended by the highest state officials.

On August 5 Croatia also observes Victory Day, Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Croatian Veterans' Day.

More news about the Operation Storm can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 3, 2019 - US General Sandra Best, the Chief-of-Staff of the Minnesota Air National Guard, will attend events marking the 24th anniversary of the Croatian military and police operation Storm as part of her visit to Croatia, to last several days.

The US general on Saturday visited Croatian Air Force units at the "Colonel Mirko Vukušić" barracks at the Zemunik air base near Zadar, where she was informed of the Croatian Air Force's mission and tasks and visited the premises of the Wings of Storm aerobatic team and the Zemunik air base fleet.

One of Gen. Best's hosts, the Croatian Air Force Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier General Michael Križanec, said the very good cooperation between the Croatian Army and the Minnesota National Guard had been going on for more than 20 years.

Križanec said the talks with General Best focused on the continuation and ways of strengthening the cooperation through joint exercises and defence activities.

The Minnesota National Guard is our strong and loyal partner and we appreciate and are grateful for all the support it has offered to help develop the Croatian Army's new capabilities, Križanec said, adding that the two sides would continue developing their cooperation and friendship.

During her stay in Croatia, General Best will also visit the Croatian Navy.

More news about relations between Croatia and the United States can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 3, 2019 - On the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the 1995 Croatian military and police operation Storm, the Serb National Council (SNV) on Saturday issued a remembrance statement calling for a minute's silence and expressing sympathy with all who remember their family members, neighbours and friends killed in that operation.

"We express sympathy over the lost and abandoned homes. Even though we are not part of the collective memory established by the state, it is up to us to say the victims' names and the names of their villages and towns without fear and with dignity, and to remember them freely," reads the statement, signed by SNV president Boris Milošević.

The SNV leader noted that the war in Croatia did not end with Operation Storm, or with the murder of the last old man or the departure of the last tractor, and that it also did not end with Croatia's accession to the EU.

"The war has never been more alive and the news of its end travels slowly," the SNV says, adding that the news of the war's end has still not reached Croatian courts, members of parliament, schools and those who do not know what to do with themselves in peacetime.

"The war is not over and Serb children who have to bear the stigma of criminals in their schools and feel the guilt for its destructive consequences are the ones who know it best," the SNV says.

It warns that in such circumstances it is not only Serbs, killed and expelled during the Storm and Flash operations and tortured and abducted during the war, who are being forgotten, also forgotten are Croat civilians killed in the war. Their suffering becomes equally invisible and unreal in a society in which the war and war myths become values in themselves while ethnic and religious backgrounds are treated as life achievements, reads the statement.

The SNV has fought and will continue fighting for a remembrance policy in which there will be room for all victims and all those who today suffer injustice due to their ethnic and religious affiliation, the statement says.

"We will eventually have to look at ourselves in the mirror as a society regardless of how much we fear our own reflection," the SNV says, adding that the sooner this is done, the better it will be for the freedom and equality of all people in Croatia.

"The necessity of that act is reflected in the fact that violence was sown in society long ago and is evident in schools, in political speeches, in the media and in the street. History will repeat itself to all those who do not see the connection between the glorification of the war and an almost complete absence of solidarity and empathy," the SNV said.

More info about the Homeland War can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 1, 2019 - President and Armed Forces Supreme Commander Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said on Thursday that Croatia's Operation Storm saved Bosnia and Herzegovina and that she would like the neighbouring country never to forget who gave it a hand in the most difficult times.

She was speaking at a ceremony at the Defence Ministry on the occasion of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day, Croatian War Veterans Day and the 24th anniversary of Operation Storm, at which 266 soldiers were promoted and more than 100 were awarded.

"Looking at you all fills me with special pride. Seeing young people who are willing to continue on the path of Croatian defenders in serving the homeland guarantees that in these stormy times full of new challenges, on Croatia's bulwark, stand the defenders of its freedom, security and future," said Grabar-Kitarović.

She said the 1995 Operation Storm was a watershed that marked the arrival of peace in a war-torn Croatia and that it was followed by operations in BiH where, she added, Croatian forces, with many victims, broke the Serbian aggression and prevented new Srebrenicas.

The president recalled last week's terrorist attack in Afghanistan in which Croatian lance corporal Josip Briški was killed and two members of the Croatian contingent in the Resolute Support mission were wounded. All three were decorated.

The president said nearly 24 years had passed since the last Croatian defender was killed in battle. "Like Josip Jović, the first defender killed in the Homeland War, lance corporal Briški gave his life for peace, defending Croatia far from its borders."

Defence Minister Damir Krstičević said the Operation Storm anniversary was a celebration of the greatest victory of the Croatian army and police in the Homeland War, but also a day to remember the defenders who built their lives into the foundations of the state for present-day peace and freedom.

"An enormous sacrifice was made for our freedom," he said, adding that this year's Operation Storm anniversary would be "significant and sad because of our Josip Briški, who died serving the homeland and all of humankind in the struggle for peace, freedom and security in the world."

Krstičević said Briški's death proved that peace and security had no price and that it was therefore necessary to continue to develop and strengthen the Croatian army and the homeland security system.

More info about the Homeland War can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, August 7, 2018 - Montenegro is turned to a secure European future and resolutely walking in step with developed democracies, free of the ballast of the past, Podgorica said on Tuesday in response to accusations from the pro-Serbian opposition that it was scandalous and disgraceful that Montenegro's military envoy attended the anniversary celebration of Croatia's Operation Storm.

ZAGREB, August 6, 2018 - The fact that Israeli fighter jets and their pilots took part in a parade to celebrate the 1995 Operation Storm triggered harsh criticism from Belgrade.